This unified world towards which the efforts of the religious minority
would direct human activities cannot be pictured for the reader as
any static and stereotyped spectacle of happiness. Indeed one may
doubt if such a thing as happiness is possible without steadily
changing conditions involving continually enlarging and exhilarating
opportunities. Mankind released from the pressure of population, the
waste of warfare and the private monopolisation of the sources of
wealth, will face the universe with a great and increasing surplus of
will and energy. Change and novelty will be the order of life; each day
will differ from its predecessor in its greater amplitude of interest.
Life which was once routine, endurance and mischance, will become
adventure and discovery. It will no longer be “the old, old story.”
We have still barely emerged from among the animals in their
struggle for existence. We live only in the early dawn of human
self-consciousness and in the first awakening of the spirit of mastery.
We believe that the persistent exploration of our outward and inward
worlds by scientific and artistic endeavour will lead to developments
of power and activity upon which at present we can set no limits nor
give any certain form.
Our antagonists are confusion of mind, want of courage, want of
curiosity and want of imagination, indolence and spendthrift egotism.
These are the enemies against which the Open Conspiracy arrays itself;
these are the jailers of human freedom and achievement.
_Chapter VIII_